Subspecies of Pavo Muticus

[Faith SL]

Hi
sorry all what you write here is theory !!! and proved by nothing. Go into the jungle in Asia explore the green peacocks in their habitat and then reports, that can not be made at home. In thirty years green peacock breeding have so called EXPERTS me joked a lot.
I believe only what I see myself or experienced.

Believe me, I would if I could. I would gladly spend months in the East researching Dragonbirds there and collecting as much information as I can by watching the peafowl in their natural state. The problem with research like that is partially cooperating with the people in the country and partially the funds to do so, and I definitely don't have the type of funds required for that right now. Maybe someday though... in the meantime, people work with what they can and sort through all the information available to them to try and find the most accurate information to further increase their knowledge of the subject and species of interest.

I agree, some peafowl 'breeders' and 'experts' still cannot tell the difference between a spaulding and a Green (or just knowingly place an exotic-sounding title on an impure bird to gain more money from the sales). Not all experts, but some. One peafowl breeder in particular who I met last spring touted that he had been 'an expert with raising peafowl for over 20+ years' and also had 'pure green peafowl' - upon looking at his breeding pair they were not even spauldings but regular India Blues with hardly a drop of Green blood in them.

 

[peafowlmom]

How can you get your birds tested? I have a pair of java's and burmese. The burmese are 3rd generation from Lewis Eckard's last import of these. The man I bought them from has some kind of paperwork, never even knew they could come with papers, and he is bringing them down with my forgotten net, this weekend or the next. I can't wait to see what these papers say.

 

[Faith SL]

How can you get your birds tested? I have a pair of java's and burmese. The burmese are 3rd generation from Lewis Eckard's last import of these. The man I bought them from has some kind of paperwork, never even knew they could come with papers, and he is bringing them down with my forgotten net, this weekend or the next. I can't wait to see what these papers say.

I honestly do not know where to get testing done like that, although I have heard it can be very expensive. Avian Biotech offers services for disease testing and DNA sexing (http://www.avianbiotech.com/Index.htm), but I would also like to know which place (or skilled individual, perhaps?) offers services for more advanced avian DNA testing.

Best of luck with your Green peafowl, Peafowlmom!

 

[torwyn11]

They need to do a great deal of genetic work to determine what's what. The rank of subspecies is becoming more and more unused as mtDNA analysis requires phylogenetic cladistics to replace Linnaean nomenclature. Molecular systematics is always more accurate than grouping by superficial characters. The thing to do is either to lump or split the populations, according to the DNA evidence. Either the 3 groups will either be lumped into muticus or they will elevated as a separate species. This does not, of course, have anything to do with interfertility, since P. cristatus and P. muticus are interfertile, and produce fertile, viable offspring. However, when one DOES examine superficial characters, locality (and local selection pressures) are often linked with certain traits. This is, by no means, the only indicator, as there is often more variation within a single group than exists between 2 closely related groups.

 

[MinxFox]

Is this Resolution???

Breeding subspecies all together I think will eventually dull the look of green peafowl overall. I do agree that subspecies should be kept separate, but isolating subspecies further could be difficult because the green peafowl is already endangered and it seems that some breeding of the same subspecies from different areas might be the only choice to keep the bloodline strong. Sometimes I wonder if one reason why people have issues with breeding green peafowl in the US is because some of the green peafowl might be inbreed and thus are harder to breed. I mainly think though that it is a space or stress issue. I think they need not only lots of space and places to hide, but at least some grass in their pen and some high perches.

 

[clinton9]

I definately think there could be more than three subspecies. There is so much diversity in just one subspecies that people label as Java or something that it does make you wonder how many subspecies there are exactly. I really really agree that we need a big bird organization to recognize this. As for the keeping of green peafowl, the photos of green peafowl in the wild are so different than some of the green peafowl photos I see in captivity. I think it would benifit people to have pure birds just because of their extreme beauty. Some of the nicest green peafowl are going to be the ones you import from the place of origin or from a breeder who definately has done that. There is a green peafowl stud book here: http://www.pfauenfarm.de/Home-Engli...ook-program-E/pmi-tn-stud-book-program-e.html I think that the stud book is a great idea. Also with all the subspecies of green peafowl it would need to be presented in a simple way so everyone can understand the key differences and such.

Hi you can find me and people about dragonbirds (green peafowls) in facebook...
1) google
2) write facebook
3) facebook arrive in your computer
4) write "dragonbird"
5) you find us and green peafowls.

clinton9